Wednesday, October 26, 2016

flowers and flying things


Re my last post...It may have sounded like I am disappointed (I was) and unhappy (I was) with the way things turned out but I m OK with it now. In retrospect, when I was reaching for that gold ring, I was not having fun. Making the pieces had turned into work and going to the shows was extremely stressful for me, and then there was the debt we kept expecting to pay off when we finally 'made it'. I have a great life and I enjoy the work again and if I never sell another piece, well, that's not why I wanted to do this technique anyway. The whole point of doing this work was to give myself an outlet to do art for myself. I will continue to work at it and not be prolific and I guess my kids and grandkids will have to decide what to do with all the pieces I leave behind.


Last Sunday was a gorgeous day...beautiful blue sky, cool in the shade, warm in the sun, and most important, not humid...a perfect day for being outside. Which I was. All day.

The pool is now cleaned, dried, folded, and packed away where it will stay until one of the kids or grandkids decides they need an above ground pool or I decide to sell it or one of the grandkids begs me to put it up next summer.

Other fall tasks around the yard were tended to hit or miss. I have still to get anything planted for a fall garden though I did buy some broccoli and cauliflower plants and one bell pepper plant that are still in their little containers. I gathered the day's worth of pecans, cleaned out some of the gone by summer bloomers, used the trimmer around the flower beds and the Little Backyard (the mower won't fit through the gate), picked up the dead and fallen branches and threw them in the back of the truck for transport over to the burn pile, dug up the sprouting nut grass from the back bed because you know there was no way in hell I got it all the first time, and I don't know what all. Planted a few pots of stuff, taking them out of the nursery and into the real world.

The birds have vacated though. I've noticed in the last week or so that there are almost no birds around, not even the cardinals, chickadees, and titmice. Or wrens. Even though the amount of seed I put out every morning in the totem bird feeder gets eaten, I don't see them. I've had the tea cup back up for a couple of months now but I never see a bird come to it here lately so I don't know what's up with that.

Still have lots of butterflies. Saw this little hairstreak that allowed me to photograph it.


I spied this dragonfly and moth hanging out on the yellow ginger waiting for the sun to warm them up.



This scary looking guy convinced me I did not want to touch it.


I was taking pictures of the toad lilies 



when this hummingbird moth flew right in front of me, not at all bothered by me or my camera.



And the cosmos and other things are still blooming like mad.







17 comments:

  1. I have noticed that even in the woods the blooming has slowed down, is about over in many instances. What was glory two weeks ago is ragged and faded now. But your yard looks terrific! It's nice to be able to work outside again, isn't it?

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  2. Every picture, I'd go Oh. Such wonders and so pretty. Raining here today which is good since we haven't had any in a long time. Turn your pool into a talapia tank and you can use the water for plants and eat the fish. Ultimate gardening. Easy for me to say as I know zero about hydroponics. We'll need it if Trump gets elected.

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    1. good idea but I wouldn't raise tilapia. it is the least nutritious fish out there. I never eat it especially how it is raised.

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    2. My sister says never eat anything that lives in the water it uses for a toilet. I like fish, but that says it for me for tilapia.

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  3. Wonderful photos. Those insect captures are amazing.

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  4. I love your birds and bees. I think next summer I'll plant a couple more trees, then I will have enough escape routes for birds who attract neighborhood cats. You know, in the old house I lost a few doves to hawks, and never thought about taking down bird feeders to solve that problem. Hawks leave almost nothing behind, though. I'm such a hypocrite.

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  5. Ahh delightful flowers and loved the black butterfly

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  6. Better to do things that please yourself rather than let other's opinions steal your joy.

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  7. You know i always envy your flowers.The wild toad lilies here make a big pod and it opens with tiny berries inside,maybe to help germinate them better.i have grown similar to your cultivar.I am glad your art keeps you happy. Many ask me why I don't sell prints. It is a tough business finding people who enjoy you.The shows let you express your ideas and show that you are personable to want more of what you do.My girls and i made jewelry and thought we would make millions. Sadly I still am poor years later. LOL

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  8. To have come so close - of course you were dispirited. Your work is stunning - maybe wild success is still around the corner.

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  9. I was telling Mike that if you lived in a more temperate climate you might not ever go indoors in the summer - ha! I saw a hummingbird moth once - it was flying around in front of my face, almost like it was saying, "hey lady! get out of my way!" Ha!

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  10. It's amazing how few flowers were left by the time I got to northern Kansas. Even the sunflowers and sumac had given up the ghost. It will be nice to be back in the land of "oh, pretty" -- like what you've produced over there. I think it's so cool that you've seen and photographed a hummingbird moth. I've never seen one, and would love to.

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  11. I don't see any birds here either, but the seed is all gone by late afternoon. I think it's the squirrels, we have a lot of them here. You have the most fantastic camera, Ellen, to be able to take such beautiful photos. They're lovely to look at.

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  12. Things are still positively summer-like there! (Well, from my perspective, anyway.) Love those tall orange cosmos.

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  13. My toad lilies and cosmos are as abundant as yours it seems. I still have lots of birds and most of them will winter over.

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    1. I don't know what the deal is with the birds. we usually have our standard songbirds here all year and quite a few more that winter over. I ran out of the birdseed they like the best and have been using some black striped sunflower seeds that I have that they usually love but these are big and the birds are ignoring them.

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